[NormsRevenge]

The star's billowing pair of gas and dust clouds is captured in a September 1995 Hubble telescope image.

[NormsRevenge]

Ping

[BenLurkin]

Oh, thought you meant this unstable star:

[sd-joe]

This is Sirius, and hugh. :-)

[farmfriend]

ping

[LibWhacker]

Eta Carinae is 100 times more massive than the Sun and 5 million times as luminous.

What is the theoretical maximum limit on a star's mass? Anyone know? I thought it was considerably less than 100 times the mass of the Sun.

This one's a monster, no doubt about it. Glad we're not any closer.

[buccaneer81]

If it's 7500 light years away, doesn't that mean that it could have exploded 7400 years ago and my grandchildren will see the nova?

[Savage Beast]

I thought this article was going to be about some dysfunctional, frustrated Hollywood celebrity.

[ChefKeith]

billowing pair of gas and dust clouds

I thought they meant hitlery and the dems.

[Tacis]

No doubt that this terrible disaster, which will surely effect minorities and blacks more severely, could have been avoided had Bush signed the Kyoto Agreement!

[Mike Darancette]

It is more likely, however, that Eta Carinae will go supernova long before it simply withers away. That dramatic event could occur within 10,000 or perhaps 20,000 years.

Since the star is 7,500 light years away maybe it already has.

[petuniasevan]

Thanks for the ping, 'friend. Eta Car was the subject of the 11-27-2003 APOD.

[Fledermaus]

It's all Bush's fault for not supporting the Kyoto Accords! Wake up Earth!

The evil Republicans are causing stars to explode with their reckless environmental policies!

</sarcasm>

[SunkenCiv]

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The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes: Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization by Richard Firestone, Allen West, and Simon Warwick-Smith

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[SunkenCiv]

Note: this is a topic from over five years ago.

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